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The awesomePorsche 911 Turbo

A LESSON IN WHAT IT MEANS TO LOVE A CAR

The power of love

I’ll begin this post by declaring a vested interest. I love the 911 Turbo…in fact I love this 911 Turbo, the one you see in these photographs. I love it because it is mine. Or rather, it is mine because I love it. I drove it for eighteen of the happiest months of my life and when I am an old dribbling man my children will catch me with a wistful look in my eye, murmuring its name in front of the fire.

The thing about the 911 Turbo and, in fact, all of its many brothers and sisters from the straight Carrera 2, through the 4S, to the GTS and up to the Turbo S is that to drive one is to be given a lesson in what it means to love a car.

This is a car of pedigree, a concept unchanged for generations

Sure, there are other cars out there that make the hair on the back of your neck stand up when you spy their shapely haunches, that causes your heart to miss a beat when you hear the throb and whinny of their exhausts across a crowded carpark. But those cars are imperfect – the art of compromise and an ability to overlook their obvious character defects is a necessary part of the relationship. Maniacs are great fun at the right time, but you wouldn’t necessarily want to take them round to your parents’ on a Sunday afternoon.

And that is where the Porsche is different. This is a car of pedigree, a concept unchanged for generations but constantly iterated upon until the result is as close to perfection as it is possible to get. Amongst car enthusiasts there are people who would rather sell their first-born than get behind the wheel of a boring old sterile Porsche, then there are people with sense. If I want to travel at speeds more familiar to Veyron drivers, I’d rather not end up in a box because I valued character over engineering excellence.

Maniacs are great fun at the right time, but you wouldn't necessarily want to take them round to your parents' on a Sunday afternoon.

Mesmerising Technology

This is the rub. The Turbo isn't just a marvel of what can be achieved by human intelligence and collaboration. It is a full-bore psychotically fast thunderbolt.

It is fast because it's powerful but primarily because that power is directed and harnessed by some mesmerising technology. It flatters mediocre drivers but in the hands of the proficient it becomes a precision instrument, a road-going light sabre.

The figures add up

To back all this up let’s bandy around some numbers and nerd out with some acronyms. A 3.8 litre engine with six direct-injected, horizontally opposed cylinders, aspirated by two variable-turbine turbos. Generating 532bhp and propelling the car to 198mph in the Turbo with 572bhp and 205mph in the Turbo S.

A more stable footprint than ever before with a rear track 85mm wider than the front, the classic Turbo dynamic triangle pointed straight down the track with the addition of some very clever adaptive aerodynamics that create enough downforce to hold Jupiter in orbit. Handling is maintained throughout the experience by the blissful PDK dual clutch gearbox which works hard to allow the driver to concentrate on going fast.

And the 0-60 figures? 3 seconds dead in the Turbo and 2.9 in the Turbo S. Very little drama, just wonderful surgically delivered speed.

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0-60 MPH

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Top Speed

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BHP

Figures shown are for the Porsche 911 Turbo S 3.8 Pdk

The verdict

It’s stable but rapid, comfortable but agile, dependable but exciting…take this car home to mum and dad now.